BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… OAK & STONE. High on the mountain ridge, last light of the evening sun shines through the red sumac leaves beneath the cedar and oak. Another long day, another hot summer, another farmers market coming to quiet close. Beyond, the sound of traffic, of slamming car door, of quiet chatter from the…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE LONG LAST DAY. The orange sun slips behind the western mountain ridges. Summer solstice ends, even as the evening news begins its frantic reporting of the Iran bombings by US stealth bombers flying from Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster, Missouri. Historic times for sure. War perhaps averted by war.…
THINKING’ ABOUT… THE MINSTREL OAKS. The shadow of the afternoon sun’s heat remained, covering the deep greens of the tightly mown fairgrounds, covering the land and sky itself and making the forest beyond the gravel road wave slightly, a shimmer as though of another time and place. Beyond the line of dark forest, the sun…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE DIVINE HAG. The Ozarks are beautiful in springtime, but springtime is not yet here. I stand atop my own meadow mountain, wind gusts hitting something like 50 miles an hour, and squint into the gale, into the dust, briefly losing my footing and catching myself from falling as the wind intensifies.…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT…. GOING DOWN TO EGYPT. The dark-haired boy is bent over blank white paper, black-and-red flannel obscuring a thin and insecure frame. His desk is dark brown, dark brown like his eyes, eyes like his father’s. The desk is handmade by his grandpa, pine impossible to scratch beneath layers of resin laminate. This…
Scottie’s Christmas, circa 2022 by Joshua Heston [SPARTA, MO] — Scottie Snider, longtime antique collector, artist and decorator, stands in his 1880s’ farmhouse, welcoming the civic-minded and the curious of Christian County into his holiday-ensconced residence. “I have collected antiques since I have been married and my wife Pam and I loved the old primitives.…
The Order of the Red Boar pose before the noon fight. StateoftheOzarks Fest ’22 by StateoftheOzarks staff StateoftheOzarks Fest ’22 took place Saturday, September 17, on Historic Downing Street in Hollister. The street festival is hosted by Hollister-based StateoftheOzarks.net and is the company’s sixth annual event. “This was our biggest festival,” notes editor-in-chief, Joshua Heston.…
Hulston Mill Memories by Raymond Keith Farmer Samuel Farmer, my great-grandfather, owned the mill from 1916 to 1941, when he sold it to Frank Nixon. I was raised in Dade County, Missouri, just seven miles northeast of Greenfield. My grandfather Howard Farmer was Samuel’s son. Samuel also had a daughter, Nona (my great-aunt), and she…